Ginkakuji

On my fourth day, safely ensconced in my nice new ryokan, I decided to go to Kinkakuji. It was comparatively quite close to my ryokan, and extremely famous.

Now, there are two things you need to know about Kinkakuji. First, that it is a big old pavillion covered in gold (hence the name--kin means gold, just like gin means silver), and secondly, that it is the biggest tourist trap in Japan. The original Kinkakuji was burnt down in the 1950s by a deranged Buddhist monk, apparently, and so they naturally rebuilt this precious cultural heritage... with even more gold added on.

Kinkakuji is undeniably a gorgeous, picturesque site, but that's about all it is. You go there, you take about a million pictures (from a distance, since you can't actually go up to it or anything--maybe they're afraid another monk is going to come along), together with every single school child in Japan, and you go on a brief walk through some fairly decent gardens, and you come out on the other side. It's like an assembly line! Still, it's so famous, it's pretty much a requirement for going to Kyoto. And it is remarkably beautiful, especially on the perfect sunny day that I went.

I suspect roughly 1 bajillion other people have taken this exact picture. Still, the reflection is pretty amazing there.

A broader shot...

I like this one, just showing the reflection. It's absolutely blindingly bright, isn't it?

This is in the gardens somewhere--I believe you're supposed to toss a 1 yen coin into the bowl, and if you get it no doubt you get a wish or something. I'm not sure of the exact details. But that's what all the silvery things are--1 yens. In Japan, they are made out of aluminum and really strangely light, like toy money. A brisk wind can blow one away.